Maidstone United won a historic tie with Ipswich on Saturday to advance to the last sixteen of the FA Cup despite playing their football in the National League South. For those uninitiated in the full extent of the English footballing pyramid that is the sixth tier of English football with 98 teams separating Maidstone and Ipswich when the match kicked off.
Ipswich are the high-flying surprise of this Championship season and currently sit second. The tractor boys are having to fend off increasingly strong attacks by chasing Southampton and Leeds United and they’ll hope this shock defeat was simply a wobble and not the initial tremors of a collapse.
A look at the games stats perfectly encapsulates the inescapable beauty of an FA cup upset of this magnitude. Ipswich had 38 shots, 79% possession and played almost 700 passes yet Maidstone won 2-1 scoring both of their two attempts on goal. If a textbook of fundamental features of English football was being written this would be an excellent case study.
Maidstone beat Stevenage 1-0 to secure their fourth-round fixture against Ipswich and were arguably unlucky to only secure Championship opposition for their round of sixteen tie. Sam Corne has been grabbing the headlines scoring the winner against both Stevenage and Ipswich but the very tidy chip from Lamar Reynolds which put Maidstone in front initially should not be forgotten
Maidstone United were born out of the bankruptcy of the original Maidstone team in 1992 and there is legitimate hope within the club that the financial windfall from this historic cup run will go a long way to restoring them to the English Football League. Sadly the need for clubs to be reborn by fan groups after they are squandered by poor ownership is an increasingly common spectacle but Maidstone are a testament to what football fans can achieve independent of big money owners.
So which teams, before the current Essex headliners, have made it deep in the cup causing upset to the establishment? Let us find out.
Blythe Spartans:
The last club outside the top five English leagues to reach the fifth round of the FA Cup was Blyth Spartans all the way back in the 1977/1978 season. The club heralding from the North-East fell to a 2-1 loss in a replay against Wrexham after some controversial referring gave Wrexham a route back into the initial tie.
The Spartans got to play in the Debenhems Cup (a two-legged fixture between the highest finishing non-league sides) as a result of their FA Cup success. They eventually did make it into the Football League in the 1990s but have since returned to the level of their FA cup success in 1978.
What makes the Spartans run so impressive, aside from being the only other sixth step side to make the fifth round, is that they beat eight teams on the way. If Maidstone can do it again and beat Leeds/Plymouth Argyle they will top the Spartans and stand alone as the most successful sixth tier side in FA cup history.
Lincoln City:
In the 2016/2017 season the Imps, playing in the National League, made the incredibly impressive run to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup where they gracefully bowed out 5-0 at the Emirates. On the way they took down some big names including Brighton & Hove Albion, Ipswich (again) and even Premier League Burnley.
They now find themselves playing League One football and so this upwards trajectory on the back of FA cup success will hopefully prove inspiring for Maidstone as they look to climb the slippery EFL pole. The Imps were the first non-league side to go so deep in the tournament since Southampton 103 years before!
Tottenham Hotspur:
Tottenham are a household Premier League name and also the only non-league team to ever win the FA cup. Admittedly this was 124 years ago before anybody knew what a ‘Titanic’ was and when the Somme was simply a pleasant river in Northern France.
The competition, and English football more widely, looked a tad different in 1900. Spurs, despite being a member of the Southern League, only had to play five rounds to claim the trophy. Despite this shortened format the win was remarkable and is still the greatest cup upset of all time.
Southampton:
Current competitors with recently vanquished Ipswich it is hard to imagine Southampton as a non-league outfit. Yet either side of the famous Spurs FA cup win in 1900 the Saints reached the Fa Cup final. In 1899 they made it all the way to the final before losing to Bury and in 1901 they repeated this feat but then fell at the last to Sheffield United.
The run to the final, as with Tottenham, was less exhausting than it is today for a non-league club. Nowadays a non-league club of Southampton’s standing would need to play six preliminary rounds before entering the tournament proper. In 1899 Southampton got a bye to the first round and therefore enjoyed a less arduous journey to the final.
Despite this shortened format the cup run is incredibly impressive and it drew impressive numbers with almost 69,000 fans watching the final in 1901.
Marine:
As if it was chosen to nicely demonstrate Tottenham’s development in the century since they won their first FA cup we were given the Marine run in 2020/2021. The side, who were then playing in the Northern Premier League Division One North West, made it all the way to the third round before losing 0-5 to Spurs.
The Northern Premier League Division One North West is the eighth tier of English football and that day Marinee went up against Gareth Bale, Dele Alli and Lucas Moura whilst Jose Mourinho prowled the touchline. Whilst the game was never close the incredible eight game run Marine went on to reach the third round whilst playing seven divisions below Spurs is incredibly remarkable.
Conclusions:
So, Maidstone’s very impressive run undoubtedly rests well amongst the pantheon of famous FA Cup runs from non-league teams. It is a tradition which predates universal suffrage in this country and whilst the latter is arguably more important both deserve to be celebrated.
If Maidstone can beat Leeds or Plymouth in their fifth-round meeting then they will become the first sixth tier team to reach the quarter finals. Whilst their chances may seem remote it is certainly not unforeseeable. Leeds are serious contenders for automatic promotion and Plymouth could become embroiled in a relegation scrap. Maidstone will be hoping these matters divert their opponents focus away their meeting.
Irrelevant of the result Maidstone have successfully delivered our nationwide portion of FA Cup magic this January and for that we should thank them.
